Tag Archives: Simon Morley

What am I working on now

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Other than the standard PolkaSpots Supafly Wi-Fi jobs, I seem to be immersed in a number of reasonably exciting design projects right now.

Can’t complain either, it’s always a pleasure working on something creative not just writing code.

Current Websites Include:

Wild Swans – London based Scandinavian Fashion Retailer

Wild Swans – the UK’s leading Scandinavian fashion store. I’ve been tasked to modernise their existing site and integrate with a high-end commercial shopping cart.

  • Created a custom WordPress integration so the owners can quickly edit pages without having to faff with html or code. Good lesson in php, custom widgets etc.
  • Importing the blog from blogger ensuring pages titles etc. are preserved.
  • Setting up a monthly newsletter campaign using our spanking new system.
  • Integrating with commercial shopping cart.

Go live’s due at the end of the month.

Once Was England – In Memory of a Vanished Land

Once Was England –  a highly regarded lifestyle blog covering all things from a vanished land. The site’s being moved to a WordPress blog and a sub-site created around the popular page, previously held on Tumblr.com

  • Another custom WordPress integration designed to mimic the existing simple style. Once Was England has grown up and a larger site is now required.
  • Importing the blogs, images and comments from Tumblr to WordPress – no easy task…
  • Setting up an online shop from where OWE will sell fine English wares.

Go live’s set for this week…fingers crossed.

PolkaSpots Supafly Wi-Fi – The UK’s Leading Wi-Fi Hotspot Company

Ok, a bit of a cheat this one but still important… I’ve just redone the existing site moving it from our previous CMS (Business Catalyst) into yet another WordPress blog.

Live 11th Jan 2011. Check it out here…

Other stuff:

  • Getting back on the bike after breaking my foot in November 2010. Got to lose some Christmas pounds.
  • Organising my 30th birthday which looms closer everyday.
  • Lusting after bike porn and spending too much time reading bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com
  • Enjoying the Boris Bikes
  • Missing my cat who ran away on Friday…

How you should use Twitter

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This one’s written for a friend whose tumblr blog needed a few more visitors. He asked me to help and I suggested that Twitter might be one way to achieve this. After verbalising his distaste for a few moments he came round to the idea. Here’s what we did:

  1. Created a twitter account – free and simple to do.
  2. Set the tumblr blog to automatically post to twitter. (Most blogs allow this.)
  3. Added a nice background to his twitter profile and put up a picture.

The next thing to do is get followers on Twitter. Here’s what we recommend, in no particular order, just do them all:

  • Find people on Twitter that post similar things (like fashion). Follow them.
  • Follow the people that are following the people you’re interested in.
  • Search for people who send interesting tweets. search.twitter.com is a good place to start. Follow them all.
  • Create lists of people you like. Like the PolkaSpots one here.
  • Read the tweets of the people above and ‘retweet‘ them. This sends the tweet out to the people who follow you.
  • Comment on people’s tweets and retweet them – be human.
  • Read lots of websites everyday and use the ‘Tweet Me’ button to send interesting things out.
  • Post links but not too many.

Things not to do:

  • Never follow more than about 100 people day (max) otherwise you’ll be suspended. We were stuck for ages on this one.
  • Never never never never never never use / pay for services to get twitter followers.
  • Never never never never never never send spam out
  • Never blatantly advertise yourself / services. It’s not cool

That’s it, have patience – it doesn’t happen over night.

He who dares wins

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In life and business, he who dares wins.

As discussed many times before, people like to follow like sheep. People don’t like to be different. Make sure you think differently if you want your business to succeed.

Here are a few things you can do to help build your business:

  • Get out – socialise, talk and interact with interesting people.
  • Watch – open your eyes, observe people. Stare at the sky.
  • Holiday – endless work saps energy and inspiration. Get away.
  • Phone – don’t answer if you’re busy. Send the caller an email.
  • Think – don’t agree to things too quickly. Say no sometimes.
  • Experiment - fail sometimes and learn from your mistakes.
  • Dare – those who follow rarely hit the big-time.

Got of an idea? Implement it before someone else does. Watch your competition but do something different. Think about what people actually want, not what you think they want.

Ideas are nothing without great implementation. Everyone can copy an idea, only a few can implement them.

Make friends not war

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You’ll get an unpleasant feeling in your stomach when you notice your copy on another website. The sad truth is that if you write decent copy, it’s likely to happen to you. The Internet lends itself to plagiarism and it seems almost acceptable these days. It’s not and fortunately, if it happens to you, you’re well protected (although you will almost certainly have to spend some time with the lawyers).

Intelligent people don’t copy and paste. They’ll adapt, bend and grow their own story from your copy. This is pure evolution and it helps you grow too. Without competition, the world would be a very dry place.

Over the last 12 months, we’ve discovered 3+ companies who’ve borrowed our copy for their own sites and weblogs. We let the first one continue (I will explain in a later post), the second one took the offending copy down and the third ended up in court and landed a fine that almost sent them out of business.

How to deal with it

Blatant copy / paste plagiarism is simple to tackle. Write a firm but polite message to them asking them to remove it. It’s likely they’ll panic and remove it immediately. Rightly so.

If they refuse, find a decent copyright lawyer and send them the offending copy along with your original. Remember, it’s not worth dragging them through the courts unless you know they can afford it. The fines are hefty these days – only those with money in the bank or a decent insurance policy will pay.

Subtle copyright infringement is still worth pursuing. You can receive compensation from a company on the basis that they’ve profited from your ideas.

You can’t really copyright an idea.

And you can’t stop your competition from copying your prices. However, ideas are nothing without good implementation… Think about it.

Make friends not war

In today’s market, it’s better to be friends with your competitors than enemeies. At PolkaSpots, we routinely share information between a select group of Wi-Fi companies. It’s one of the main reasons for our growth this year but was not well received when we started. After all, would you trust your competition? Try it, just be careful.

An accidental holiday in France

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Last Friday, I failed myself… My first rule of blogging is to write your posts in advance and publish over a week or so. I went away by accident and didn’t write enough to cover the trip.

Last Thursday I headed off to a music festival in Stratford upon Avon with a certain special someone. We arrived a day early – the festival wasn’t open yet. Regardless, we camped in an empty field and woke up surrounded by cars.

Queuing for tickets, we quickly realised that they were having a laugh. They were trying to make us pay for our concessionary VIP tickets;  alcohol was banned in the campsite; food was also a no go. What kind of festival was this.

Without hesitation, we jumped in the car and headed to a different festival in Knebworth. Upon arrival, we discovered the ticket price…

Desperate for a break, I couldn’t face the thought of another day in London (sorry London). Two hours later we were camping in Kent. The next day we were in Stella Plage, a French holiday resort, one hour from Calais. We were on a sunny beach enjoying a few beers and the warm breeze.

Get away or face a burnout

You realise how easy it is to refresh your mind and body at virtually no cost and with virtually no hassle.

Next time you’re feeling a bit glum, jump on a plane or train and see where the adventure takes you. Just don’t forget to publish your blogs in advance!

This evening, there was a fire

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My lodger and I thought our neighbours we having a barbecue. At midnight, we realised it was more sinister than that. Flames 5m heigh and clouds of smoke engulfed Kensal Green.

Why would you start a fire in the middle of the night?

Before long, there were 3 firemen in Alicia’s room. I was wearing compression tights after my evening run. She was in her pyjamas. It was an interesting moment for all of us… Then Jennyanydots (my cat) escaped.

Don’t burn the candle, both ends and the candlestick

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Multitasking is an amazing skill but does it actually do us any good? Is it better to get all your jobs 70% completed or 70% of your jobs completed perfectly?

I’m in two minds about this. Sure, sometimes you just need to get things done,  but at most times perfection is the only route.

With the onset of tabbed browsing, 24meg broadband, iPhones, iPads, Wi-Fi Hotspots, 3g Internet, SMS, twitter and blogging, you’d think we’d have enough to do. These days we’ve got too much on our plates. There’s been lots of coverage in the press recently about how all this is affecting our brains, and I’m starting to wonder where we’re heading. Our ability to process large amounts of data is diminishing daily.

This last week I realised that I needed some time off. A miserable cold has been following me around for 2 weeks (it’s 32degrees in London now). My lack of sleep, 16 hour days and triathlon training were killing me. There are times that you need to step back, look around, think. And not just panic about what’s getting done. It’s completely counter productive.

Living the brand, my son

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You’re wearing purple trousers and colourful odd socks today Simon. That’s an odd combination. David, our trusty designer, was pleased to see that I’m consistently ‘living the brand’.

These days, PolkaSpots Wi-Fi is a mashup of personalities. An amalgamation of all the faces and brains that contribute on a daily basis.

PolkaSpots is still my love and joy. For the last 5 years, I’ve woken up every day, inspired to cycle or walk to our office in West London.

My colourful trousers and odd socks are part of it, but trousers alone don’t make a successful Wi-Fi Hotspot company. There’s no doubting PolkaSpots Wi-Fi has personality, we’re a living, breathing enterprise operating in the real world. Without the faces that come in every day or once a week we’d be nothing. And why not have a little fun, experiment? After all, we spend more time together than with our families!

Click here to meet the PolkaSpots family…